Any chance of getting employment in France?

[Nadia]

Anglo/French couple seeking employment in France from September 2006. 

47-year-old English man currently ICT teacher in secondary school, looking for opportunities using IT in France (Western regions preferred).  Reasonably fluent in French.

43-year-old French woman currently language teacher in FE college, seeking any sort of teaching of languages (English at any level, Spanish at beginners level).

[Nick Trollope]

Sorry, but not much, I'm afraid. The French educational system is pretty stitched up. Unless you are willing to teach "self-employed" (English to adults eg.), where you will earn little, you may only get a menial jobs that the French will not do.

[SaligoBay]

[quote user="nicktrollope"]Unless you are willing to teach "self-employed" (English to adults eg.), [/quote]

Don't forget there are private schools too, including international ones, they don't always have the same restrictions on who they employ.

[Karen_Ian]

Nadia,

Not impossible but you have to be prepared for lots of letters and a wait. My partner and I (both teachers in the UK), with reasonable french but still working on it, have taught at various places through doing the following: write to all the lycées in your area, the Inspection Aca, associations and even the temp agencies.

So i've been a replacement teacher in a public lycée (fashion) through a direct letter to them and now I'm an intervenante d'anglais for 8-11yr olds after writing to the Insp and waiting a term for them to respond!

My partner has taught english in a public collège (it wasn't for him), did private holiday teaching for some kids, he's done/ doing evening classes for adults (which demands lots of prep) and is also an english assist in a lycée (that came through a temp agency!) which is less prep but less pay too.

We've both turned down teaching work.

We know we're not 'in' the system as proper teachers, but at the minute we're happy with these supporting roles and we can always apply (do the tests, jump the loops etc) to change that in the future.

Oh and as you've got the language teaching experience that's already a plus as we've built ours up here.

On the IT side a friend (with french like mine) found a job as an infographiste so jobs are possible, but it wasn't the level of job she was used to. Her (french) partner is currently looking in the IT field and each job that comes up is being swamped with applicants. They're in the north west and they're thinking they'll have to move regions to find something suitable for the two of them.

Good luck

Karen

[Nadia]

Thanks a lot, Karen, for your encouraging response.  May I ask you which region of France you live in? 

I must say that at the moment I am writing many letters and sending our CVs but I was really wondering if all this would come to something positive in the end.  I am French myself so, normally I should be able to find work more easily but the problem is that I have a PGCE and not the CAPES, so it restricts me into my choice of teaching in France.  I don't particularly like teaching in secondary schools anyway, but I really enjoy teaching adults. 

Did you move to France before you both found work?  You see, this is our problem - we are worried about the risk we could take if we were moving there without a job in prospect.  We know where we want to go (Western France) but we would like to do the move once one of us has a job there.

Are you enjoying your new French life better than your English life?  Do you think the move was worth it?

Thanks again for your help.

Regards,

Nadia

 

[Karen_Ian]

Nadia,

I'll pm you with a fuller reply but no we didn't have jobs before we moved but we did have funds to keep us going while we improved our french and found them.

Yes, we are enjoying our new life and it was worth it, but we came looking to change our life, not to continue with the over-worked life we had in the UK.

Karen

[Deby]

There are a few business schools in Grenoble where you could have a look at.  Some people I know operate a UK based company and charge the Universities direct.  You would have to sort out your own healthcare etc.

Deby

[Nadia]

Thanks, Deby, for your info.  Grenoble would be a possibility then but we are really focused on going to live in Western France (the Vendée region is possible).  

Nadia

[Afy]

What kind of IT skills? PM me :)

[Nadia]

Hi Afy,

My husband has sent you a PM about his IT skills.  I hope you got it alright.

 

[godwinsj]

I think it depends on how determined you are to get into the teaching system.

With a PGCE & MA. ED I was offered 6 hours a week by the Academie de Nantes (which covers the Vendée?) and I think with time I could have built up a reasonable amount of hours. I did hear of someone who after 4 years had built up her hours considerably. But because I didn't have the CAPES exams I was paid at a vacatire rate which amounted to 10€ an hour after cotisations & I was travelling 90 kilomètres thre & back to get there, so it was not worth it. 

You could get lucky & pick up a couple of part-time posts nearby though. I am afraid that there were quite a few teachers on the staff at the collège who were having to do this anyway, even with French qualifications.